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Show THE OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINE- SUNDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER 20. 1921. R r. . ' ,X Xr'xx' 7 X 7xvV 'X X '7 T w CI' V A Y VM 1 t V' ri 7 vf) - . - 4 f V m- m ilOV: 0 ; :xx Ai i "Wit 'A ?l M H 1 iX I M M MM ft IP if! If W ii W Worshippers of Great Italian's ''Divine Comedy" Hotly Resent Rich American Scholar's Psycho Analysis, Which Charges Hidden Utterances of Passion ' ( Between Lines" -- Mil' ifVV iX M VI , - Svr m 5? ,1 .A I &?&tSr It 13 with the saturated Christianof spirit ity. It depicts tho journey of the soul. It has been the fountain-hea- d of inspiration of the manygreatest re"world's ligious paintings 4 4! - ii';- w .V "T " - i Y: ... cending a staircase. The allusion to a "Nude Descending a and poems. V 4V school. "Mr. Arensberg reads Dante as he would read Picabla, and the "Divine Comedy.' In his hands becomes a new Nude des- for - T". " theory that the ex t.ymbolism of tho garage was a commonplace motive of cultivated Italian poetry, or that writers of Dante's time anticipated in a conscious manncrthe discoveries of Freud and the mannerisms of the present Montmartre of the ages. ' s ?t f " A Famous Engraving by Gustave Dore, Showing the Tortured Souls of Two Lovers Whom Dante Encountered in His Journey Through the Infernal Regions. - 4 , Bv- - Medallion Head Etched for the Recent Dante Celebration by Alexander Popini. the Height or tne present worldwide Dante celebration, just when America and other countries were joining Italy in honoring the memory the great Florentine genius, a rich Yorker and Italian scholar, Walter berg, promulgated an astounding theory which promises to become the foremost literary scandal of modern times. Arensberg claims to have found in the Italian text of the "Divine Comedy ' a multitude of secret symbols and cryptic acrostics which convince him - that the whole poem, with its deeply religious narrative of Dante's journey through hell, purgatory and paradise, is a veiled allegory describing a dream of sordid and AT ' ' , y V ' V J ,C , ' 4 N' ' '.4 ' I 44 ,' 4. . 'f " 'AiCrS, "-'- v - s ' . ! frj ; '?X&'$.&'v .A PUK; -- XV kV'l, V TV va ' , - - ' - n r - - - " - , ;!7-7-:-;- ' T . 1 . ... . now gloriously gazes on the countenance written "All hope abandon, ye who ester of him who Is per omnia saeculo bene- - I.erI" They arriTe at th riTer Acheron dlctus. (The Styx) and there find the old ferry Tho "Divine Comedy was the result of man. Charoa. who takes the spirits of that holy Inspiration. It recounts a series Dante and' Virfil over to the orpoilte of visions la which Dante, hating loit his there. Hand in hand, ths two poets Jour-way in a .gloomy forest. Is met by Yirgll. ney through the uttermost rerions of the who promises to show him fie rnlab- - nether world, rtioas cf cry heat sxd of ments of bell and afterward of purxatory; Icy cold, where they encounter multitudes nd that he shall then be conducted by of damned souls undergoing vsrtous forms Beatrice Into paradlne. Oa fearing to of torture. After a long succession of make the Journey, Beatrice herself ap-adventure In hell and purga pears to Dante in. a dream and urges him tory, th pure soul of Dante at last asto the undertaking. Ied by Virgil, Dante cends to parsdlie, where It Joins that ot enters the gates of hell, over which are the blessed Beatrice for eternity. -- toul-trjls- ..' , . Arensberg, reducing the whole work to Staircase" is a reference to an elaborate sex symbolism which would .the cubi3t painting of that by tickle the heart of Dr. Freud, is regarded name the futurist artist, which by critics as a man who has tried to dynacreated a furore of comment some years ago and is now mite this mountain peak. Beatrice has stood as a paragon of all owned by Mr. Arensberg. The psycho-analys- is craze, that is purest and most beautiful In with as of sex Its the emphasis woman. She has been exclusively a spiritof all subsupposed mainspring ual symbol. is intimately conscious Arensberg, in his book, has dragged the associated thought, with the Beatrice of holy legend through the muck school of art of which. Mr. ' in the opinof advanced psycho-analysiIs an exponent and Duchamp ion of his astounded readers. Mr. Arensberg a patron. MaryW. Smyth, doctor of philosophy of Psycho-analysi- s has seized the Yale and member of the Dante Society, imagination of many people, said in the Literary Review: "No restoration realists of the worst and fanatical converts to the Freudian theory have Bought to sort could (possibly have so degraded a reduce all past history paintdeas Dante'a llke subject Arensberg even art and the ings grades the conception of Dante's mind sacred relations religion of motherhood, which resulted in the greatest poem ever to a sort of sex formula. written in praise of women. In studying the great artistic "If Dante schemed the 'Divine Comedy' with any of the symbolism attributed to achievements of the past and him by Arensberg, there would be no oc-- . present, they sek for sex comcaslon whatever to celebrate the memory plexes" where normal people of a great poet. only see sublimity and beauty. "AfthJs' time, when the six hundredth Arensberg. however, fcoes even anniversary of Dante's death is being cele- further than the Freudians. He brated In many lands, it' is most unfor- claims that when Dante wrote tunate that such a" book should be the "Divine Comedy! he was and Intentionally" "consciously "The writer of the 'Divine Comedy was dealing in, material sex symbolav not gynecologist; he was a poet, and it ism. is as a poet that we are honoring him.' How far such a thing was Even more scathing Is Dr. Arthur LIv- - from Dante's thoughts may be ingston, former professor of romance lanfrom the poet's own gathered Columbia guages at University, one ot,the most distinguished Italian scholars in the words describing bis first and United States and contributor of articles perhaps his only meeting with the lady who inspired his ; to the American Encyclopoedla. "The symbolic 'analogies' stressed and sublime dreams. He calls her "the glorious strained in Mr. Arensberg's book are . V. like schoolboy obscenities he says, in lady of my mind, who was by The many called Beatrice." and conNation, and continues: -Even' if we grant that sex symbolism tinues: " plays an .important part in primitive folk "It was given to me to be lore, it is a heavy tax on xood will to be hold a wonderful vision wherein asked to pass from these premises tof tb- . I saw things that determined me Marcel , - Du-cham- 77 v p, 77 :y . . 7 vL. . fMh ! g ,7V' w- 17 ' --7J " - 7;' ( J ' v 1 7 . ultra-moder- n s, " - 7--:--- . - . H - 7--' : - - . x s . ": sCxC jSyh 7" - . ' W - 7- f .: " - s . X :A4J: - 4'Vf ' . , v ' X-;- r;.ir.-- . - 'V' - r X---rv.-- ' ' 1 re I r , A i ... ' "" ' r yiyz' l -- ... v - " . 7i ; V ) v''-',- - - X V '0 - . - . w- - ".- . 1 - . S , Sy " pub-V.lishe-d; " . - -,- .1 . - , v 4 torn ii - 11321, - ' . International Feature Service, iT "t " - iiwi.iniiiiW'iiTi - , n'r--- r ill." 7 " : : ' 1r1mr11r11111111111w1-4.i- I. , ... - Naked Spirits "Winged with Horrid Fear," Seeking to Hide In the Crevices of the Rocks. Illustration of the "Inferno." Great Britain Hiahta Iterved. Inc. . f .. :x:,;;:i:- Vv:x,x; V - (Cj jj t - - I would Ray nothing further of thl blessed one until such time as I could discourse mor worthily concerning her. I labor all I can as she In And to this truth knoweth, "Therefore, If It be Ills plcasum throuKh whom is the life of all things that my life continue with me a few years, it my hope that I shall yet write concerning her what hare not before been written of any woman. After the which rasj it seem good unto Hlra who Is the plater of grace that nay spirit should go hence to behold (In heaven) the ulory of Its lady, to wit, of that blessed Beatrice who that Lost Souls Fleeing from a Rain of Fire, as Described by Dante . in the Inferno and Illustrated by Dore. " - Dante and Beatrice, from a Painting by Holliday. - -:- - - ! r - v rr- . e i I - Bacon-Shakespear- .S.'Jf. s. -- , . forbidden love with Beatrice. To understand why this amazing prochorus of nouncement has aroused Indignant protest' and denunciation, It i3 only necessary to recall .the classic story of Dante and Beatrice, known and loved by every school child. A thousand times the story has been re-- , told by painter's brush and poet's pen- the story of an ancient bridge in Florence one Spring morning more than six centuries ago, where a poet stood and a maiden passed. For one instant they looked into each other's eyes. It is not recorded that Dante Alighleri and Beatrice Portrarini ever met again. But from that Blngle glance was born the greatest tragic poem and what had heretofore been accepted as the purest .legend of spiritual love of man for woman 'that the world ha3 ever known. For centuries in every land Dante's "Divine Comedy" and the beautiful love story of Dante and Beatrice have been a sacred legacy and an inspiration. The present celebration, on the six-- hundredth anniversary of the poet's death, has been ..the occasion for the paying of new tributes, ' the unveiling of new statues, and the laying of fresh laurels on Dante's tomb. And now, amid this universal concert of praise, Walter Arensberg's volume has exploded like a noxious gas bomb at a sacred symphony. . , , In the book, entitled 'The Cryptography of Dante which bears the imprint of Alfred Knopf as publisher, Arensberg carr - ries his argument to, astonishing length! He goes so far as to claim that In Dante's sublime regional descriptions of landscapes and objects in the nether world 'and in paradise, the Florentine; poet Is consciously and intentionally describing in veiled language the physical charms of the woman he loved. Arensberg's method, in searching for hidden "keys" and "symbols" in the text, is somewhat like that of the scholars who precipitated the notorious controversy, in their'effort to prove that Bacon wrote Shakespeare! But the wrangle, though' it "has aroused some bitterness , among Shakespearian scholars, is no more than a gentle breeze compared with the cyclonic whirlwind of "protest and denunciation which ArenVberg's book is beginning to arouse. Dante's "Divine Comedy" Is a mountain peak among the sublime religious poems Bacon-Shakespea- i ; - . HlH.WD!,4, From a Doro - |